Cancelled

Batman V Superman is soon going to hit theaters, heralding the greatest DC Movie Universe crossover ever. While superhero nerds across the world wait for the Brave And the Bold to make their very first cinematic debut, it’s important to remember about the JLA movie that never was, the brain-child of Mad Max‘s daddy, George Miller…

Nerds love robots of every shape, size and denomination. We also love kaiju. When Guillermo Del Toro put both of those together in an apocalyptic 3-hour brawl, even the most jaded among us jumped for joy at the prospect. Naturally, a movie of its nerd-caliber is deserves at least one sequel.

After almost 250 episodes and a slew of “what ifs” debunked, Discovery’s super-cool TV show MythBusters will go off the air after its upcoming 14th season. Show co-hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, now pop-culture staples themselves, made the decision in conjunction with the network to wrap the show in 2016.

Sigh. Yes, you read that right. Futuramahas been cancelled. Again. Or rather, Comedy Central has decided – with heavy fuckin’ hearts I hope – to not renew the series after its seventh season; the second half of which is airing this summer beginning June 19 at 10 p.m. This “cancellation” isn’t anything new to long time fans of Futurama – a series that’s been revived three times – and there’s still a glimmer of hope this isn’t truly the end.

Executive producer David X. Cohen and creator Matt Groening spoke exclusively to Entertainment Weekly about the decision and how neither are all that shocked. “It was what I had expected two years earlier,” said Cohen, “At this point I keep a suitcase by my office door so I can be cancelled at a moment’s notice.”

Groening added,

We’ve been in this situation before and it’s tempting when you’re doing episodes that are as good or better than anything you’ve ever done to continue doing it. We’re catching our breath and seeing what the fans have to say. The experience of this show has been so much fun from the very beginning to now — everybody is so happy to work on this show — that it’d be a shame if we all went our separate ways… We would love to continue. We have many more stories to tell. But if we don’t, this is a really great way to go out… I think these episodes are the best ones we’ve ever done.

That’s a helluva run that few shows achieve, and especially given the fact that it came back to life, it’s really an amazing story. I’m more thankful and feel a sense of gratitude toward the whole process — and that we found a way to keep going for 52 more episodes — than I really am even thinking about the ending. It’s a blessing that it came back and lasted so long.

In the end, the news is bittersweet. You can’t forget the opportunities allowed Futurama – after the Fox cancellation a direct-to-DVD comeback led to two new seasons on Comedy Central – are almost unheard of, but, how many seasons has The Simpson’s lasted? What about Family Guy!? It’s lasted well beyond seven seasons after its initial cancellation. Grr! Argh!

I’m going to remain optimistic. There’s still 13 more episodes coming this year, and from there, who knows!

Groening: Perhaps Futurama will return in another form, on the Internet, or as a puppet show in the park, or maybe as a puppet show in the park on the Internet.

Cohen: As I said three times before, this is definitely the absolute end of the show. I don’t know why nobody believes me when I say that.

Make sure you tune in June 19th! Until then, I’ll just wait here, hopeful for news about Futurama living on, somewhere, somehow.

The American military drama Last Resort isn’t alone in it’s cancellation this past weekend. ABC also announced the cancelation of David Wilcox‘s creation, 666 Park Avenue. Recent events with hurricane Sandy helped deal the fatal blow to the sets of 666 Park Avenue, including damaging Manhattan’s The Ansonia. The cancelation news was just the last shovel full of bad news piled on top of an already steaming pile of problems for the series.

Loosely based on the novel of the same name by Gabriella Pierce and starring Terry O’Quinn, Rachael Taylor, Dave Annable, Robert Buckley, Mercedes Masohn, Erik Palladino, Helena Mattsson, Samantha Logan and Vanessa Williams the hourly drama was already in a tough spot. Ratings for the drama slipped to three million viewers less than when the show debuted back in September. Sadly, it means it was only a matter of time before ABC put the axe down, but you’d think they would have cancelled that God awful show The Neighbours before they went after something with such promise.

666 Park Avenue had both a strong direction and cast backing it up, guess they doesn’t count for crap in network television these days.

ABC will however allow both Last Resort and 666 Park Avenue to finish out their 13-episode seasons. After the shows wrap up with their final episodes you’ll have to wait till their DVDs eventually come out to force some kind of Family Guy style revival.

Despite last week’s report from Syfy reps that Eureka would continue for a sixth season, news has just reached the Nerdbastards late night coffee table that Syfy has cancelled Eureka’s sixth season, and the series will end with 13-episodes, which includes a holiday special.

Syfy released this statement on their decision:

“After painstaking consideration, we have had to make the difficult business decision to not order a season six of Eureka. But Eureka is not over yet. There is a new holiday episode this December and 12 stellar episodes set to debut next year, marking its fifth season and six memorable years on Syfy. The 2012 episodes are some of the best we’ve seen, and will bring this great series to a satisfying end. We are very grateful to Bruce Miller and Jaime Paglia, their team of incredible writers, and an amazing cast and crew who have consistently delivered a series we continue to be very proud of. We thank the fans for their support of this show and know they will enjoy its final season in 2012.”

In news that surprises nobody, 2 networks are placing their respective, original, super hero series in front of the firing squad of death.

ABC have unofficially clipped the wings from No Ordinary Family – the dramatic super hero family adventure series starring Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz. While the show hasn’t been officially canceled yet, genreaddict.com mentioned on their website that sets have been taken down on the ABC lot. Everything isn’t so bad for everyone though, as stars Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz, have already signed on to new pilots for the Fall. Chiklis will be the lead in Vince Uncensored, a new CBS comedy and Julie Benz has signed onto a currently untitled CBS drama starring Patrick Wilson who plays a surgeon who is grieving over his wife’s death. When your stars have already signed onto another show before the series is even over you might as well release the Kraken!!!! news that there isn’ going to be a second season, ya know… to lessen the blow now.

Also getting the red stamp of death is NBC‘s The Cape. Which houldn’t be any surprise to the masses. After getting it’s season cut from 13 to 10 episodes and the finale being online only it was only a matter of time. The show of a carnie vigilante was playing Russian roulette from the beginning and it looks like they finally landed on the right chamber in the gun. From tvbythenumbers:

TheCape is off NBC’s schedule, and The Event resumes in its former Monday 9pm timeslot next week. NBC notes that the final episode of The Cape will be viewable online only. No word on the geographic restrictions on that viewing.

In a double wammy for the now canceled series this is the 4th to be canceled with Summer Glau on it. She hasn’t really had the best of luck since Firefly. Even with the fanbase she has it wasn’t enough to keep her on the air for another season. Yet with the bad reviews and lack of viewership it wasn’t any real surprise that the Cape was taken out to a permanent lunch. At least NBC is bringing Wonder Woman to replace it… Oh wait, never mind.

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